Muskogee County Crews Repair Flood-Damaged Roads

Not only did Monday's heavy rain cause flooding in some homes, it's also keeping county road crews busy. Parts of Muskogee County near Fort Gibson got six to eight inches of rain fall in a very short amount of time, causing some problems on some county roads.

Muskogee County crews worked much of Tuesday on a couple of bridges on Two Mile Road northeast of Fort Gibson, to fix what it took floodwater a short time to heavily damage.

"This is the worst on one of our main thoroughfares," said Muskogee County Deputy Commissioner, Bob Burgess. "There's a lot of traffic on Two Mile Road."

The water got a foot over a bridge. The damage is from water flowing between layers of asphalt, breaking up the top layer, making the bridge impassable.

5/26/2014 Related Story: Heavy Rains Flood Homes, Streets In Fort Gibson, Broken Arrow

Emergency Management Director, Jeffrey Smith said, "It came down and the water came up real fast."

Crews now have a temporary fix in place and even used some of the broken chunks of asphalt to reinforce areas under the bridge.

"Water hits it; it can undermine a whole road," said Burgess.

Smith and road crews surveyed other trouble spots and found about a half dozen areas that need attention.

"It was taking the tops off roads, it would wash out tin horns and lower level bridges, undermining certain areas of the road," Smith said.

The force of the water took a toll on roads mostly north of Fort Gibson, cutting off access for some people to their homes.

"At the speed water can move, it does not take very much at all to start washing roads out," said Smith.

Throughout the heavy rain, crews worked to fix damage and prevent further problems. They'll return to make more permanent repairs where they're needed.

"The runoff in these areas is just unbelievable," said Smith.

Burgess said, "Wind and water are the two major destroyers in this part of the country."

Although some homes and apartments were flooded and evacuated in Warner, in the southern part of Muskogee County, that area was spared the infrastructure damage like in Fort Gibson.